On 1 May each year, the Berliner Philharmoniker gives its annual European
Concert in celebration of its own birthday on 1 May 1882. It has done so since
1991 when Claudio Abbado conducted the orchestra in the Smetana Hall in Prague,
and each year it gives the concert in a different European city.

Euroarts appears to have the rights to the last decade or so of these concerts
(some earlier European Concerts can be found on the Arthaus label), and as
they age Euroarts has been working on ways of giving them new life, either
repackaging them with new documentaries (see, for example, review)
or by using past European concerts to promote its catalogue.

Like Audite, which has been working its way through the live Kubelik Mahler
cycle as an attraction to boost distribution of its catalogue each year, Euroarts
has been selecting annually a European concert from its archives, redesigning
its cover art and re-releasing it with the current year's catalogue at less
than half the usual retail price. In 2009 we were offered the 2001 European
Concert conducted by Mariss Jansons in Constantinople. In 2010 it was the
2004 concert with Rattle conducting Barenboim in Brahms’ First Piano Concerto
in an Athenian amphitheatre.

Here we are in 2011, with the 2006 concert from Prague, which Michael Greenhalgh
reviewed
on its original release. Unlike previous years, though, the liner-notes have
been retained. The catalogue, which hitherto has ousted the liner-notes and
squeezed itself into the DVD case, sits alongside the DVD case in cardboard
housing instead.

As 2006 was a Mozart anniversary year, that year's European Concert comprised
Mozart’s music only and took place in the Estates Theatre, the theatrical
birth place of Don Giovanni.

The programme is attractive and mildly surprising. The obvious Prague Symphony,
No.38, is put aside and Don Giovanni does not raise the curtain.

Instead the concert opens with a smile-inducing performance of Mozart's Haffner,
and closes with a spirited Linz. In between the symphonies, we are
treated to a delightful performance of the E flat major piano concerto, K482,
Barenboim directing from the keyboard. There’s also a plummy rendering of
the first concerto for horn.

For me it is the piano concerto that is the highlight. Barenboim's playing
is chatty, charming and at times whimsical. He achieves a lovely rapport with
the orchestra, which he faces across his lidless piano, back to the audience.
The second movement is hauntingly beautiful, with Barenboim almost rhapsodically
flexible. The Berlin winds, offering consolation, are simply gorgeous in tone
and blend.

Beside the E flat major piano concert, the first horn concerto seems slight,
an impression enhanced by the remarkable ease with which the virtuosic horn
writing is despatched by the Berlin Philharmonic’s principal horn.

Both symphonies are characterised by thrust and gusto in the outer movements,
and warmth in the inner movements. A serious face from the podium stares at
serious faces among the orchestra, but there is bluff humour in the playing.
While the string section has been trimmed for this all Mozart programme, this
is the only concession made to period performance orthodoxy. Barenboim and
the Berlin Philharmonic make a robust sound at broadly traditional tempi.
HIPsters may grimace, but for the rest of us the warm, joyous sound this approach
engenders makes for highly enjoyable listening.

The recorded sound is warm and immediate, assisted by a sympathetic acoustic,
and the direction makes generous use of multiple camera angles without becoming
fussy.

The ‘bonus’ documentary is nothing more than a brief postcard of Prague and
is of limited interest. I would be surprised if anyone buying this disc would
consider watching it more than once, if at all.

This is a very enjoyable release and well worth snapping up at its discounted
price.

Tim Perry

This is a very enjoyable release and well worth snapping up at its discounted
price.